his case. john boehner said this is his moment. his opportunity to leave. shannon: i would like to play a little bit more about what john boehner has said. and then i would like to play more about what brett said about this. but first, what john boehner said to diane sawyer. >> raising taxes is the wrong prescription. >> raising tax rates is unacceptable. frankly, it could not even pass the house. shannon: bret baier is the anchor of special reporting. what is your reaction? we understand that the president will invite congressional leaders over. >> we will also probably here from his senior adviser, david plouffe. the one thing that is interesting, if you look at the polls on the question of income tax rates, you have 47% that want to increase for those about 250,000. no increase for anyone tax increases, and 13%, increases for all. 47% 1,250,000 or above and 48% don't raise them at all or reason for everyone. so, you know, if you look at the exit polls, there is not really a definitive answer there. the republicans are going to say this is not the right answer and that is how the

that john boehner reportedly offered him when they were trying to avoid the fiscal cliff last summer. one wonders whether, given that he just re-won the white house -- the president thinks he's in a better position to convince john boehner? reporter: well, it will be interesting to see. there has been talk that he might start on the campaign trail again. he might hold rallies after thanksgiving. saying that we need to war money from the people that make a higher income. this is back in august of 2011, part of the debt deal negotiations. that is what blew up those talks. the idea of 1.6 billion -- things will change. but as of right now, that would be an absolute nonstarter among senators on capitol hill. megyn: these republicans, many of them were reelected. i am to say that they have a mandate from their constituents to keep doing what they have been doing. particularly in not raising taxes, which is such a thorny issue over the past few years. notwithstanding the fact that when you survey the majority of americans, they want to see taxes go up on the rich. the question is whether t

elections have consequences. one of them is obamacare, as john boehner put it the other way, it's the law of the land. that means that businesses are going to be laying people off. that means that over eight million americans who are part time are going to continue to work part time until we see a real resurgence in this economy, certainly. because it's just not economical for the employer to move ahead. it's cheaper for them, in fact, to pay a $2,000 fine. imagine this, to pay $2,000 for an employee they didn't hire who they've hired and not put them on an employee-sponsored insurance plan. this is the exact reversefect of what we had, you know, been told would occur. but we should be used to that, because so much of the -- so many of the consequences have not been intended because they were never thought out by this congress, the previous congress. and we're looking at people saying it's partisanship. let me give you an example of why that's pure bull, shannon, many i fay. shannon: please do. >> one of the companies laying off people is a company called stryker, one of the medical devic

telling me john boehner's going to agree to that? >> he's agreed -- he's saying, he's making con conciliatory nos that maybe we don't mind if we get more money coming in from the rich. he wants to get rid of loopholes, but the effect is more money coming into the treasury. harry reid says tax the rich. trumka says don't cut entitlements, no, no, no, and don't worry about the deficit. you add that up, and that is a deal on the fiscal cliff, but the stock market doesn't like it, and the economy won't do well in it. that's the bottom line. megyn: all right. we'll see what they do with the fiscal cliff. they tried to fix it twice, twice they failed, now we're getting close to the deadline, and they're like, oh, we'll punt again. okay, fine. washington's going to do what it's going to do. what about obamacare? that, all sort of the bad stuff, if you will, of obamacare, the taxes, the penalties people are going to have to pay, they started in obama 2.0, and that starts in 2014. how big of an impact is that going to have? is. >> big. the re-election of barack obama means that you will g

republicans saying he's open to compromise. not a single q are you willing to give? john boehner was asked an said he's willing to give a little on loopholes. but not a single question. he says he takes a balanced approach and that's what the people in the room think. he's balanced. same thing on benghazi. we have all these questions on benghazi and they are not answering. you have to go to denver to get a local radio host? megyn: there were two questions about benghazi. one was from ed henry. but they only had eight questions. i knew that sitting in this anchor chair. they my that. they are the white house press corps. you are telling me these are all issues that matter to some americans. climate change, immigration and so on. but when you only have eight questions and there isn't a question about how we are going to gets the debt under control or what we are going to do about the 23 million americans. >> i agree about whether he was going to meet with mitt romney was a waste of a question. megyn: if you had 20, go for it. >> i think we all agree on all sides that that was definitel

unless something is done. it ended with what looked like a big handshake between the president and john boehner. james rosen has the report live from the white house. hey, james. >> reporter: house minority leader nancy pelosi says congress wants to show a message of confidence to the markets and she said they should aim to strike a deal on the fiscal cliff by christmas. the special lasted just over an hour. president obama said nothing explicit about reining in entitlement spending. instead the chief executive spoke about approaching the deficit in a balanced way and talked about long-term impediments to growth. >> i think we are all aware that we have some urgent business to do. we have got to make sure that taxes don't go up on middle class families and our economy remains strong that we are creating jobs and that's an agenda democrats and republicans and independents, people all across the country share. >> reporter: republican leaders gave no indication they are willing to entertain the idea that the president wants them to, namely the raising of tax rates on some particular catego